23.02.10 / News / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
A UN expert has said Albania is holding up inquiries into reports that Serbs captured during the 1998-99 Kosovo war were butchered for their organs there.
UN special rapporteur Philip Alston said the Council of Europe, Serbia and the EU authorities in Kosovo were all investigating the reports.
He called on Albania to allow an independent inquiry.
Albanian PM Sali Berisha has dismissed the allegations as fiction and says they have already been investigated.
International attention was drawn to the alleged crimes in 2008 when former UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte revealed in her memoirs that her team had investigated reports that around 300 Serbs held in Albania had had organs removed, apparently for sale to foreign clinics.
According to her book, UN investigators searched a house in the Albanian town of Burrel in 2004 after receiving reports that Kosovo Albanian militants had used it as a base for removing Serbs’ organs before killing them.
“The investigators found pieces of gauze, a used syringe and two plastic IV bags encrusted with mud and empty bottles of medicine, some of which was of a muscle relaxant often used in surgical operations,” Ms Del Ponte wrote.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said its judges had never received evidence in support of the allegations.
During the Kosovo war, which ended with Serbia withdrawing its forces from the province after a Nato bombing campaign and an eventual unilateral declaration of independence by the ethnic Albanian majority, thousands of people were killed, most of them ethnic Albanians.
‘Diplomatic ping pong’
Last year, Albania rejected a Serbian request for an investigation into the alleged abductions and killings.
Speaking to reporters in the Albanian capital Tirana, Mr Alston said the authorities in Albania strongly believed that the allegations were “politically motivated and absolutely without any foundation”.
“On this basis, none of the efforts to investigate have received meaningful co-operation on the side of the government of Albania.”
His own inquiries in Albania had met with a “game of bureaucratic and diplomatic ping pong”, said Mr Alston, who is the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions.
“The bottom line is that the issue is definitely stalled,” he added.
“All Albanian officials I have met with consider the claims, charges of killings, as ridiculous,” he said.
“If it is ridiculous, in order to get rid of this issue, make available a proposal for an independent investigation and offer genuine co-operation.”
Serbia welcomed the UN expert’s call for an independent investigation.
“That would be the right path to find out the truth and achieve full regional co-operation,” Bruno Vekaric, a spokesman for Serbia’s war crimes prosecutor, told Reuters news agency.
23.02.10 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Parvin Dabbas is a name that was on everyone’s lips a few years ago, courtesy his truer-than-thou performance in the by-now-cult film Khosla Ka Ghosla. Readers may recollect that the film had Anupam Kher as the retired simpleton father and his long standing fight with the builder mafia, with his two sons by his side, played by Ranvir Shorey and Parvin Dabbas. Life, now, comes a full circle for Parvin as he turns director and directs none other than Anupam Kher in his directorial venture.
Speaking exclusively about the film to Bollywood Hungama, Parvin said, “My film is set in the rural as well as urban Delhi. It’s an action comedy with a political twist, and centers around a gang of four guys. It’s about a certain situation they get into and how they deal with it. The film stars Vansh Bharadwaj, newcomers Kuldeep and Ashish Nair alongwith a new girl named Tina Desai, who plays the female lead. Besides these, my film has Anupam Kher, Kiran Juneja, Sharad Saxena, Yashpal Sharma, Neena Kulkarani, Vipin Sharma amongst others. I am going to wrap up the shooting very soon. Apart from this, I just cannot reveal anything more at this very stage.”
While the film has been shot in locations across India, the music of the film is composed by two different music composers, viz., Siddharth Suhas and Dhruv Dhalla.
The debutante director signs off saying, “I am still searching for title of the film. The title of the film should revolve around the brief ‘Right Job Wrong Guys’.”
Any suggestions, readers?
23.02.10 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Click above for on the sets stills
The eagerly awaited promo of Sajid Nadiadwala’s Housefull will be unveiled this week along with the Farhan-Deepika starrer Karthik Calling Karthik. Housefull, directed by Sajid Khan, is a multi-starrer featuring Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal and Jiah Khan in lead roles. The film is a romantic comedy about normal people caught in abnormal situations sparked off by a white lie. It’s a story of the world’s unluckiest man trying to find true love to change his luck.
Talking about the promo, director Sajid Khan says, “A trailer is meant to excite audiences enough to get them talking about the film. But as a maker you definitely do not want to give away too much of the story. I’m sure the audiences will enjoy the promo.”
Housefull once again brings together the super-hit team of producer Sajid Nadiadwala and director Sajid Khan who earlier gave us the blockbuster Heyy Babyy.
23.02.10 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
Tags: Phoonk 2, ramgopal verma
Last time, a challenge was laid out by the makes of Phoonk, that if any viewer could dare to see the film sitting all alone in a theatre and not run out scared he will get a cash prize of Rs.5 Lakhs.
The contestant who took the challenge didn’t even last for 30mins and ran out of the theatre. However, after the release, some people alleged that the contest was rigged and that they never felt fear while watching the film. So now, without going into a pointless argument on the same, the Phoonk 2 team has decided to open themselves to a scientific evaluation of that claim.
For Phoonk 2 , an ingenious implementation will be used on the Contest, which in a very scientific way will measure the heart rate of the viewer. The participant will be fitted with an ECG machine while he is watching Phoonk 2 which will monitor his/her Heartbeat and Pulse rate and this will be shown live on a screen outside the theatre to both the Media and all concerned.
A normal person, according to professionals, has a certain average heartbeat and when subjected to any kind of an intense emotion, the beats will considerably go up. So if the challenger claims that he had no fear while watching Phoonk 2, the monitor will tell whether he is lying or not and on the other hand if he can control his fear and thereby his heartbeat, and not let it cross his normal heartbeat then he will get to win the cash prize.
The Phoonk 2 contest will be launched on 10th March on the official website www.phoonk2.in. This contest is restricted to only healthy people with no history of Cardiac disease and also only to people who are between 18 and 60 years of age.
Read More
23.02.10 / Bollywood / Author: timepasss / Comments: (0)
If there is one man in Bollywood who is on a roll, then, it has to be him. We are indeed talking about the one and only Akshay Kumar. After having being chosen as the brand ambassador for a million products, Akki is all set to lend his ‘Phase Value’, this time round to the electronics major LG.
Bollywood Hungama’s confirmed sources said, “Akki was always an immediate choice for the said brand, after Abhishek Bachchan.” Rumors have it that Abhi’s contract was not renewed because he insisted on having his better half Aishwarya Rai as a part of the deal, which LG officials were not too forthcoming about. That’s the reason they chose Akshay over Abhishek.”
One may recall that, just a few days back, LG had signed up John Abraham, Abhay Deol and Genelia as their Brand Ambassadors for their mobile range. With Akshay now at the helm of things, LG definitely seems to be high on Bollywood power.
